Universities are attempting to attract more students and improve finances by initiating radical reforms to their teaching practices, but staff have warned that ¡°rushed¡± changes will only store up wider problems.

Coventry University has become the latest to announce it is rolling out the ¡°block teaching¡± model across the whole of the institution, after first using it at its satellite campuses.

Students on its master¡¯s courses will be taught from the start of the next academic year using the method, which involves focusing on one intensive module over a seven-week period. Undergraduate courses are set to follow in 2026.

The university ¨C which is in the midst of a redundancy and restructuring programme amid a ?59.3 million deficit?¨C has attracted the ire of staff who say the work required to redraw the curriculum alongside the wider institutional changes and job losses is too demanding.

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One staff member, who wanted to stay anonymous, said there was ¡°a lot of frustration and a lot of complaints that we are forced at this point in time to come up with this new curriculum¡± outlining that there is not enough time to rewrite courses for September. They added: ¡°How can you write a curriculum if you don¡¯t know who is going to be there to teach the modules?¡±

Coventry argued that block teaching has ¡°proved to be a highly effective teaching model¡± across its campuses to date.

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¡°Having operated this innovative model very successfully for 13 years, we have a wealth of experience to draw on as we now roll it out into the three colleges within the university. It has been shown to improve student engagement and completion rates, while also streamlining the assessment workload for colleagues,¡± a spokesperson said.

A growing number of universities are adopting block teaching in some form, including De Montfort, Suffolk, Plymouth and Gloucestershire, and some report success from the model:?Victoria University?in Australia recently credited it with?converting an A$18 million (?9 million) deficit in 2023 to an A$66 million surplus?last year.

However, staff at De Montfort ¨C?which is also looking to cut 80 academic posts?¨C have called for block teaching to be abandoned, arguing that, far from helping to attract more students, it has actively put them off. ?

The university conceded that the redundancies were?linked to?falling home student numbers but denied that block teaching was the cause.

Staff members and the University and College Union have claimed that the method has driven up workloads, with the pressure becoming ¡°unworkable¡± if the redundancies go through.

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¡°If other university leadership teams have got the idea that this is a great thing, then they¡¯re going to shoot themselves in the feet,¡± one academic said. ¡°It¡¯s bad for universities as institutions, it¡¯s bad for students, it¡¯s bad for staff, and in the end it will be bad for those senior managers that don¡¯t have anywhere to manage.¡±

A university spokesperson said that internal data and feedback suggests ¡°most staff¡± are enjoying block teaching.?

¡°Some staff have reported that they find the block model more challenging and we continue to support them in adapting to what has been a sizeable transition for the whole organisation. That transition has only been possible with the hard work staff have put into making it a success,¡± they said.

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At Coventry, much of the staff concern has focused not on the method itself but the timing of the changes.

¡°I actually think that block teaching isn¡¯t a bad idea because I think our students do need a lot of more intensive one-to-one or small group attention¡±, another staff member said.

But they feared it was ¡°going to fail because we don¡¯t have the leadership necessary to make it work, and because they¡¯re driven by different motivations [of trying to improve finances]¡±.

¡°I know that¡¯s why most of us don¡¯t want it because it¡¯s going be a lot of extra work and it¡¯s probably not going to make a difference. I know for a fact that there are people who didn¡¯t reapply for their roles because they knew that this work model wouldn¡¯t work for them, and that includes new parents and people with caring responsibilities.¡±

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juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com